Bayla
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I ended up with black and blue toes last season which I posted under "black and blue toes" months ago. I'll skip the background on my skiing ability as it's all in that post, but do want to mention again that with the suggestion of Divas here I found my way to my local bootfitter - Billy Kaplan (who is on the bootfitters list here on this forum). As one Diva said, the good news was that my ability probably exceeded the performance of my boots, the bad news is that I probably need new boots. That Diva was correct.
Although my boots were sized correctly, they were a high volume entry level boot. I wear a 9 to 9 1/2 street shoe and a 24 mondo in ski boots. Bill narrowed down a list of boots for me to try based on my foot type (average foot size, but I tend to like wide shoes and hate high heels. I have the start of small bunions - probably from years of wearing those damn high heels. Higher than average instep, but not by much. Narrowish heel/ankle and average calf size) What I like to ski was a consideration as well - bumps, trees and powder - not so much a speed or slalom skiier. My final two choices ended up being between the Full Tilt and Dalbello.
What I loved about both boots is the 3 piece system concept, Intuition liners, varying flex adjustments and easy to get on and off. Supposedly, the Intuition liners will not pack out that much - time will tell. The Full Tilt boots have a great cable system that will surely snug things up nicely. The Dalbello's have a combination of cables and buckles. They were VERY similar in fit, snug, but not painful and they "hugged" my foot. I wore both several days for 20-30 minutes at home trying to trouble shoot any potential issues. Other than the tight toe area in both boots (because they weren't heat fit yet) my only issues were with the Dalbello's which felt like a blood pressure cuff and I made my calf go numb. Also, I noticed after flexing the boot I started to notice shin pressure and a ever slight heel lift. No issues with the Full Tilts other than extremely snug heel in a good way. I kept waiting for something to bother me, but it never happened. I'm not sure how anyone could wear these boots off the shelf without some kind of bootfitting. The heat fitting is a must!
I wear orthotics normally, so Bill made me custom footbeds. After Bill heat fitted them (with toe caps) and tweaked alignment of the cuffs. The Dalbello's did not seem to make my foot go numb anymore, but still had that ever slight heel lift and most of all that shin pressure was noticed again. As they say the slightest issue at home will be a bigger issue on the mountain. The Full Tilt boots were just incredible and the Intuition liners on those particular boots come up higher which is most likely why I don't have any shin issues in the Full Tilts. For those who have larger calves, just getting them around your calves could be an issue for you in the Full Tilt boots. I would imagine that these are probably great for skinny legs as the intuition liners wrap around like a cuff and the power strap keeps things snug. I also love the idea of the interchangeable tongue that Full Tilt sells for about $50 so you can change the flex of the boot. The Dalbello's can be adjusted to alter the flex as well, but in theory it seem's more effective to me to replace the actually tongue that is being flexed. It takes about 30 seconds to do this.
So with the Full Tilts being my pick, the shell's were placed in a warm water bath and then I put them back on until the shell's were cool. The last tweak Bill needed to do was to shave down the footboards a bit as they have a slight factory arch which I don't need since I have my custom footbeds. Can't say enough about Bill Kaplan, the time and attention to detail was impressive and I'm a tough sell.
As I carpet skiied in them the other night what I noticed most was that even if I leaned way back in my boots, the fit was so snug and conforming. I put on my old boots which are like slippers and can't imagine how I skiied west coast black runs in the crud post powder day. I no longer have all that volume (boot slop - I now understand that term all too well) I can't move my foot forward in my new boots even if I tried. They seem to have amazing heel retention and my foot just stays put. I also had a big problem with lifting up my toes, problem solved with new boots - there is no room to lift up my toes! Now I just need to go ski on them!!.
Thank you to all the Divas for your imput!
Although my boots were sized correctly, they were a high volume entry level boot. I wear a 9 to 9 1/2 street shoe and a 24 mondo in ski boots. Bill narrowed down a list of boots for me to try based on my foot type (average foot size, but I tend to like wide shoes and hate high heels. I have the start of small bunions - probably from years of wearing those damn high heels. Higher than average instep, but not by much. Narrowish heel/ankle and average calf size) What I like to ski was a consideration as well - bumps, trees and powder - not so much a speed or slalom skiier. My final two choices ended up being between the Full Tilt and Dalbello.
What I loved about both boots is the 3 piece system concept, Intuition liners, varying flex adjustments and easy to get on and off. Supposedly, the Intuition liners will not pack out that much - time will tell. The Full Tilt boots have a great cable system that will surely snug things up nicely. The Dalbello's have a combination of cables and buckles. They were VERY similar in fit, snug, but not painful and they "hugged" my foot. I wore both several days for 20-30 minutes at home trying to trouble shoot any potential issues. Other than the tight toe area in both boots (because they weren't heat fit yet) my only issues were with the Dalbello's which felt like a blood pressure cuff and I made my calf go numb. Also, I noticed after flexing the boot I started to notice shin pressure and a ever slight heel lift. No issues with the Full Tilts other than extremely snug heel in a good way. I kept waiting for something to bother me, but it never happened. I'm not sure how anyone could wear these boots off the shelf without some kind of bootfitting. The heat fitting is a must!
I wear orthotics normally, so Bill made me custom footbeds. After Bill heat fitted them (with toe caps) and tweaked alignment of the cuffs. The Dalbello's did not seem to make my foot go numb anymore, but still had that ever slight heel lift and most of all that shin pressure was noticed again. As they say the slightest issue at home will be a bigger issue on the mountain. The Full Tilt boots were just incredible and the Intuition liners on those particular boots come up higher which is most likely why I don't have any shin issues in the Full Tilts. For those who have larger calves, just getting them around your calves could be an issue for you in the Full Tilt boots. I would imagine that these are probably great for skinny legs as the intuition liners wrap around like a cuff and the power strap keeps things snug. I also love the idea of the interchangeable tongue that Full Tilt sells for about $50 so you can change the flex of the boot. The Dalbello's can be adjusted to alter the flex as well, but in theory it seem's more effective to me to replace the actually tongue that is being flexed. It takes about 30 seconds to do this.
So with the Full Tilts being my pick, the shell's were placed in a warm water bath and then I put them back on until the shell's were cool. The last tweak Bill needed to do was to shave down the footboards a bit as they have a slight factory arch which I don't need since I have my custom footbeds. Can't say enough about Bill Kaplan, the time and attention to detail was impressive and I'm a tough sell.
As I carpet skiied in them the other night what I noticed most was that even if I leaned way back in my boots, the fit was so snug and conforming. I put on my old boots which are like slippers and can't imagine how I skiied west coast black runs in the crud post powder day. I no longer have all that volume (boot slop - I now understand that term all too well) I can't move my foot forward in my new boots even if I tried. They seem to have amazing heel retention and my foot just stays put. I also had a big problem with lifting up my toes, problem solved with new boots - there is no room to lift up my toes! Now I just need to go ski on them!!.
Thank you to all the Divas for your imput!
Thanks for the detailed info!
